"Authority of Jesus" - Luke 20:1-8 - October 18th, 2026 - Pastor Scotty Brown

Alrighty, well

I don't got no fireworks or nothing, just Luke 20.

So

if you got a Bible

turn there, shouldn't shouldn't she

just

uh

The scriptures should be uh

should fire us up.

Amen.

All right.

Okay.

It's good to see my old friend

this pulpit.

But

uh

we

uh

we've been looking at Jesus in his

Passion Week, and uh

he's uh

he's stirring things up just a little bit.

Not very popular with the religious people.

And

um

we saw him

last time.

Going to the temple daily, knowing what was coming, knowing that he was going to

meet resistance, and uh

knowing that this would be uh

this would be a rough week

And yet

he stayed true

to sharing the word of God.

And it says, and the people were very

attentive

to hear him

And

we just live in a day, folks, where that has to be the case.

If you're going to be a follower, a disciple of Jesus, you have to be attentive

to what he says.

You know, uh

I've heard it a couple times from a friend of mine this last week.

Why do you call me

Lord, Lord, and you do not do the things that I say?

Right?

People will call Jesus Lord, but they won't do what he says.

And uh it's a life of sacrifice, it's a life of uh to identify with his sufferings, it's a life that it

's not overly appealing.

At face

value.

But

once you start living that way, once you surrender your life to him

and let him

live his

life through you, that's where you find life.

It doesn't make sense to the world.

It doesn't make sense to me sometimes.

But

I

found it to be true.

And

uh, oh, just by the way, I want to thank all of you for praying for our dear little Augie.

And uh

he

um

He's doing much better.

Um

there's still maybe some issues down the road, but

but uh

he's he's eating pretty good and his heart beats a little better

and and everything

and he's changed our lives.

So

It's been really, really a good thing.

And we're crazy about this kid.

And so

if you'd continue to pray for him,

we'd appreciate it.

But as we get into the word

here, we're just going to read verses 1 through 8 this morning.

I won't keep you long.

Feel free to hang out and fellowship.

uh

afterwards

uh

because

we're just kinda

we're kind of just taking it all in.

I'm a little bit numb.

But uh it's it's nice

nice to be here, nice to know that we don't have to tear down, we just hit the power button and we're good to go for a while.

And um

and God's

God's really good that way.

So uh I'm probably gonna take tomorrow off.

So

But these are some powerful words here in in this passage here in these eight verses.

So read along with me if you would.

It says, now it happened on one of those days.

These are the days what Jesus was spending preaching in the temple and sharing God's word.

One of those days, as he taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel.

that the chief priests and the scribes, together with the elders, confronted him, and spoke to him, saying, Tell us, by what authority are you doing these things?

Or who is he who gave you this authority?

But he answered and said to them,

I also will ask you one thing.

And answer me, the baptism of John, was it from heaven

or from men?

And they reasoned among themselves, saying, If we say from

heaven,

he will say,

Why then did you not believe him?

But if we say from

men

All the people will stone us, for they are persuaded that John

was a prophet.

So they answered, and they

So

they answered that they

did not know where it was from.

And Jesus said to them, Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

Pray with me.

Lord, we thank you.

Thank you that

you are our authority.

You're the one who came

and

took death on

and you overcame and conquered it

Lord, the death that we all deserve to die.

Lord, the sin that we've all

committed and fallen short of your

glory.

And you came to remedy those two things that are so powerful in our lives

if we have to deal with them on our

our own.

And Jesus, we thank you that you came.

And because

you were God in the flesh, you were able to conquer both sin and the grave.

And so Lord, as we look at your word today, would you

you minister to our hearts, Lord, take us to a place

with you, maybe that we've never been before, Lord, that as we just draw near to you, realizing

that

in this life uh there's so much trouble.

And yet

you will see us through all of it.

You'll give us the strength.

You'll lift up our heads.

You'll lift up our arms when we get weary

You truly are our all in all.

And I pray that we would uh surrender to that

even today

in Jesus' name.

Amen.

And

so it says here that uh

one of those days that

he taught the people, he taught the people

in the temple and preached the gospel.

And I'm wondering what gospel

he preached.

You think about the old

the gospel in the Old Testament, right?

All those passages that pointed to Jesus, I think uh

he might have taken them to Genesis chapter

chapter 3.

Right, verse 15 about the

about the

the seed of the woman and the

and the seed of the serpent and how the seed of the woman was going to crush the head of the

of the serpent and

but he would bruise his heel.

Maybe that's what he was talking about.

Or maybe he took them, he had a couple days here.

Many believe this is Tuesday in the Passion Week.

And that

Maybe he took them to Exodus chapter 12 about the Paschal lamb, that Passover lamb, that was a picture of the sacrifice that would come.

Exodus 12 · chapter mention

That when the death angel came

and it saw the home with the

with the blood on the on the doorposts, it would pass over.

You realize you've

if

you

got blood on the doorpost of your heart, the death angel's gonna pass over

Right,

uh

fulfilling John

John 11:25

chapter 11, verse 25.

I did a funeral yesterday and I share that

I share that verse every time.

I'm the resurrection of the life.

He who believes in me, though he may die, yet shall he live.

Whoever lives and believes in me.

And then he asked that question, right?

Do you believe this?

I did a funeral the day before.

at a gravesite and I asked that question, do you believe this?

And this one old boy in the back goes, yep, I sure do.

We had a little amen

session there for a second

at a funeral

It was awesome.

Because John said, right?

When John the Baptist, there it

behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

Maybe Jesus

going, that Lamb?

That's me.

That's me.

Or

how about Daniel

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2?

It was

in our reading this week, those of you

who are doing the hang-on

Bible reading.

Powerful, powerful chapter, right

where

Nebuchadnezzar has this dream and Daniel comes along

and

saves the life of all the astrologers and the wise men in in Babylon.

And he tells him, he said, I saw this figure.

The same figure that

Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream, a head of gold and chest and arms of silver and

a

torso of bronze and

Legs of steel and feet mixed with clay and iron.

And he says, and then all of a sudden there was this big rock that comes and it crushes

That was

a representation of all the kingdoms of the earth.

It comes and crushes all the kingdoms of the earth and it it

grinds them to powder.

And then this stone

fills the whole earth.

Jesus

probably told that story.

That stone?

That's me.

That's me.

Or how

about Isaiah, right?

We do it at Christmas time

in Isaiah

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

chapter 9.

I'm going to turn over there real quick.

Isaiah chapter 9, and I love this, verse 2 says, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

Those who

Dwelt

in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.

Didn't Jesus say, I'm the light of the world?

Maybe he took them there.

Right?

And then we go down to

verse 6, the Christmas verses, for unto us a child is born

Unto us the Son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his

name will be called wonderful, counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, and the increase of the government

and peace

and

increase of his government

and peace there will be no end.

Jesus is going, that's my government.

That's the good news.

Christ is the good news.

He is the gospel.

Amen.

Think about your life right now for just one second.

What would your life be

like without Jesus?

I'd be dead or in prison.

And

um

probably

dead

But when Christ comes into your life and

begins

to change you, he begins to change your thought processes

and your

your

The way you talk, your

attitudes

,

your desires, what's important and what's not

He

actually, he actually helps you and I look outside of ourselves

because we're so self-consumed

I'm not overly excited about looking in the mirror anymore.

I remember hearing John Corison

years ago saying, you know you're getting old when you get out of the shower and you're glad the mirror's fogged up

Skin

sagging where it never sagged before?

I mean it's just

like

wow.

But no doubt he was

he was sharing this good news.

Maybe he took him to Isaiah 52 and 53, the suffering

savior.

Nobody likes to see that one.

We don't like to think about suffering.

And yet, as believers, you and I are called to it.

We're called to suffer

Because

this is like a training ground.

Because after this one's over, it just gets gooder and gooder.

But our focus, our focus needs to be

on him.

So we're still in in verse one

here back in

back in the 20th chapter of Luke, and it says.

That

the chief priests

and the scribes, together with the elders, confronted him.

They did not like what he was doing.

No doubt they didn't like what he did

a couple days before when he

when he cleansed the temple.

Jesus is confronted by the religious leaders.

They obviously

did not

like the preaching of the gospel,

but there

were

were

they were no doubt irritated by the fact that

Here is this itinerant preacher, a carpenter by trade,

was invading their space.

This was their

house, so to speak.

And

um

And he did it by an obvious authority

and was turning over tables and speaking the word of God

with a power they could not deny.

You cannot deny the power of Christ, you and I.

Try.

Try if you will.

You can't deny it

Because nobody ever did what he did.

He he stands alone

in that

John

7 tells us, and so there was a division among the people because of him.

Now, some of them wanted to take him, but no one laid hands on him.

Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who

said to him

Why have you not brought him?

And the officers answered, No

man ever spoke like this man.

And then the Pharisees answered them.

Are you also deceived?

Have any of the rulers of the Pharisees believed in him?

No, because

that's why they are sad, you see.

They don't believe in Jesus.

They didn't accept him, right?

Matthew 7:29, for he, Jesus, taught them as one having authority, not as the scribes.

Matthew 7:29

Though the scribes spoke the word of God, there was no anointing of the Holy Spirit.

There was no power there.

Have you read the word before and just

the Holy Spirit just kind of blows your mind with it?

You're going, oh

My gosh, this stuff is, it's real.

It's alive.

It is like that sharp sword that the writer of Hebrews talks about.

David Jeremiah says

this.

He says, the chief priests and the scribes saw themselves as the ultimate authority in the temple.

And since

Rome even supported the control of the priesthood.

They had not given Jesus the approval to cleanse the temple, so

they demanded to know

by whose authority he had done so.

And that's what it says there in verse 2.

And spoke to him, saying, Tell us, by what authority are you doing these things?

Or who is he who gave you this authority?

The authority

of Christ

But

the things that they saw him do, that's not

authority enough.

They saw him

raise the dead, they saw him heal the blind.

They saw him

restore physical ailments of people.

They saw him do it.

It wasn't enough authority for them.

But

Jesus, like at other times, he responds in verses 3 and 4.

And he says, and he answered and said to them, I

also

will ask you one thing, and answer me.

The baptism of John, was it from heaven or from men?

So

he's playing a game with them here, obviously.

And uh

They've already purposed in their heart to reject Jesus.

Back in Luke chapter 9, we read

Luke 9 · chapter mention

in verse 22 where it says, the Son of Man must suffer many things

and be rejected.

by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed on the third day and be raised to life.

Reject.

They were going to reject him.

They were rejecting him.

You may be here today

You may have an opportunity.

In fact, the Lord may be speaking to your heart

even right now.

Believe me, I know.

I've had that happen.

When your heart goes up a

little bit, your heart rate increases, and you're thinking.

I think God might be talking to me.

Right?

Don't reject that.

Respond to it.

Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord.

Let Him lift you up.

And He will.

He's so faithful to do so

to those who will humble themselves.

The word reject here it means to reject after examination.

Because they've been examining him, right?

That was the process

for this uh Passover week.

The Passover week they would

they would

Had to choose a Passover lamb and after

examining it for four days to see if it had any flaws.

If it did, they had to reject it.

But

what did Pilate say about Jesus?

I

find no

fault in him.

No fault.

Here's the Passover lamb right before him.

And he's perfect.

He's that perfect Passover lamb.

Warren Wersby

puts it this way.

It was required that the Jews carefully examine

the Passover lamb

From the 10th day to the 14th

day to make sure that it had no blemishes.

Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, was watched and tested by his

enemies during that final week, and yet, in spite of what they saw,

And

learned

they rejected him.

I don't think anybody's going to be in hell on accident.

Right?

I believe that God's

God's just, but He's also merciful and gracious.

But when people are faced with the truth of the gospel and choose to reject it,

Their judgment will

be quite harsh.

And rightly so, I believe

Verses 5 through 7 it says, and they reasoned among themselves.

They knew they were in a pickle, right?

It was in a ringer.

And they reasoned among themselves, saying, if

we say

from heaven,

this is the question about John the Baptist, if we say from heaven

He

will say, why then did you not believe him?

But if we say

from

men, all the people will stone us, for they have

per

For they are persuaded that John was a prophet.

And so they answered, and they

they answered that they did not know where he was from.

Stinking liars.

Right?

They knew where he was from.

They knew that John was sent from God.

And unlike Jesus, John was from the priestly line.

He was a

Levite.

And they should have listened to him.

So

they said

we don't know.

I heard somebody, a Christian, a well-known Christian

on a talk show, ask.

Was

asked by the talk show hosts, is

homosexuality wrong?

And the Christian said, I don't know.

You liar

You

do know.

That's like, is fornication

wrong?

Is stealing wrong?

Is

taking the

Lord's name in vain

wrong?

Yes.

Just call a spade a spade.

Let the chips fall.

Yes, it might hurt.

The truth usually does

But the thing, cool thing about the truth is it also usually produces fruit

when it's heated

So they were conniving.

They were just these conniving, slithering snakes, servants of the enemy.

If we say this.

And so

we don't know.

They're denying God's authority

because

John

came preaching with authority.

And what was his message?

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Repent, turn.

Turn from your ways

Because all authority comes from God.

That's kind of a bizarre thought when you think about it.

Romans

13.

1

says, let

everyone be subject to the governing authorities.

For there is no authority except that which God has established.

The authorities that exist have been established by God.

Think about that.

Really?

These authorities that we see around the world that are horrific?

Yeah.

Yeah, they are.

It's like God dishes out all this authority.

He gives it to world leaders.

And then they're responsible, they are responsible for what they do with that authority that God gives them.

God gives you an eye authority.

All of us.

Every human has a certain amount of authority that God delivers to them

He gives world leaders authority.

He gives husbands and wives authority.

He gives church leaders authority.

He gives older siblings authority over younger siblings, though the younger siblings would argue that to the grave.

I love seeing families with kids like 12 or 13 years apart, and how a four-year-old and a 17-year-old can fight.

It's hilarious.

But the 17-year-old, because he's bigger and stronger, he can usually uh you know gain the upper hand on his younger siblings

And we have authority from God over our own lives.

God's given us this authority.

We can do, to do, or to not do.

That's the question.

But

what people do with this authority is on them.

What you do with your life, the authority, the sovereignty that

God has given each one of you, it's on us.

The decisions that we make, the places that we go.

The trouble that we get in

or not, it's on us.

You look at history and

and and leaders

You know, we've been going through the Old Testament and

whether it's Nebuchadnezzar or King David

or more modern history with

uh

Mao Zedong

and Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein.

All

these people that I just met and

mentioned abused the authority that God gave them.

All of them did.

Oh, King David, he was a man after God's own heart.

Yeah, but he abused his authority as a king when he

had one of his soldiers killed so he could sleep with his wife.

Right

And Nebuchadnezzar, why

God did not cut that guy's head off and just snuff him out, I don't know.

He was merciful, right?

Turned him into a cow for seven years.

And then brought him back to the throne.

Go figure that one.

It's his

authority.

He can do with it what he wants.

It's his

life.

Your life is his, whether you know that or not.

I don't know if you know that or not.

But your life is his.

We are not our own.

We've been bought with a price.

And so

Jesus, he goes, All right, you guys want to go there?

Neither will I tell you by what authority

I do these things.

I think about this and I said, why didn't Jesus just state the obvious?

Right?

He could

he could have just stated the obvious.

Listen, I'm God, you're not.

It was like

this question that they asked him was

it was a gotcha

question.

You've been around people like that

They ask you a question just to get you.

I had a guy call me one time about this, and

his name was Norman.

Is this

a name?

Sorry, if your name's Norman, but

I was just irritated when Norman called me.

And he just wanted to argue.

He didn't want any answers.

He had questions

about Jesus being the Son of God, as opposed to being God in human flesh.

But

they didn't really want an answer.

Where do you get this authority?

They really kind of put him in that place that no matter how he answered, he would be in trouble.

If he said that he had

No authority, then he was in trouble with the Jews

for invading their temple and acting like a prophet.

If he said that he

his

authority came from God, then he would be in trouble with the Romans, who were always alert to would-be

messiahs, especially during the Passover week.

And so they were gonna pit

Jesus

and

either the government or Jesus and the religious rulers, no matter what, he was gonna be in trouble.

So he chose

not to answer.

Just ask a question with a question.

That's wisdom.

Sometimes I think as believers we need to do that

But notice when the

when the Lord gives us life, the best thing that we can do with it

is give it back to Him.

It's the best thing you can do with your life.

Just give it to the Lord.

Now, I don't know how long it took you

to

realize that

I'm kind of making a mess here.

Right?

I'm selfish, I'm self-centered, I'm sinful, I give in to these sinful desires, and uh I'm

I'm really making a mess.

It was 23.

I was 23 when I finally came to the realization that

I'm not doing so well

with this life that God's given me.

And I learned from a very young age that that there was this Jesus

and that that

mankind in his wickedness deserved this place called hell.

I heard about that as a little boy.

And so

at 23, I threw my hands in the air.

I said, okay

,

I'm sick of me.

I'm sick of hurting people.

I'm sick of using people.

I'm sick of

This this

these things that I'm addicted to,

I'm just sick of it.

And so I gave my life to him

My

how things changed.

Right?

Taste, the Bible says, and see that the Lord is good.

He's worth giving your life

to.

And

his

authority is able to

equip you.

He gives us the authority by his Holy Spirit to take our thoughts captive.

That's a novel idea.

Right?

Where most people have to go pay

what

200 bucks an hour

to shrink?

How do you feel about that?

No, just give your

take your thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ as the word

of God tells us.

You have the authority to do that as a believer.

I don't know that the world has the authority to do that.

Because it appears

I don't know about you, the world you live in, but the world that I'm seeing is

no.

People have not taken their

thoughts captive.

Their thoughts have taken them captive, and they are

it, we're a we're

we're a freight train headed towards a huge cliff.

humanity is.

Oh, that we would

glorify the Lord.

Oh, that we would come to him.

And

give what he has given us, give it back to him, and let him

do with it what he will.

I love

Solomon's prayer.

So powerful, right?

Solomon was a mess.

Even after the prayer, God granted him his

wish, right?

Filled him with all kinds of wisdom.

And

knowledge.

The volumes that Solomon wrote.

It's just fascinating.

The man was brilliant, but he was dumb as a post when it came to girls and worshiping God.

Because

he worshipped all these idols.

He had lost sight of the one who had given him the authority that he had.

So

with our lives

And because

Jesus is so powerful, that's why he is able to tell us

in Matthew chapter 11, verses 28 through 30.

Matthew 11:28–30

Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls

For my yoke is easy

and my burden is light.

It's so simple.

And yet we struggle so much with it

And then

in our lives, he

he gives us this this this authority

He gave

his

apostles authority over the demons and all diseases.

I'm so thankful for the authority of Christ Jesus

in this building

Because this place was dark.

This light right now is just like glorious.

You should have been in this room when we first came in this building.

Okay, I gotta

I gotta share a story with you.

So

it was

we were having

okay I'm gonna say

we were having hell

With this

fire alarm system connecting with our HVAC

system here.

It held us up for over a month.

I didn't know what we we were up against.

Nobody could

put their finger on it.

So

about

two

weeks ago, Lee Kearns

and I were in here putting up the security cameras

and my wife, and we went to the back corner of this building.

And it's dark back there.

The only way you could see in there was flashlights.

And we come across this set of double doors.

This might be kind of superstitious stuff.

I don't know.

I think it was some real stuff.

But

and on the double doors were welded these big bars, and across these big bars were all these skulls.

It just it just gave you the e b-jeebies, it just gave you the creeps.

And then above that were

welding into these doors these big black bats with this

oozing gooey

stuff coming out of them.

It was just creepy.

And so my wife and I, we take off, we go to Elko

that one Sunday, and uh

Tyler

Rose, I believe, shared, and

and um

we're coming back, and my wife says, Scotty, what if there's something in that building that

That

uh

we haven't eradicated.

I don't know, well.

She said

like

them doors

Because the writing has been on the wall in this building.

Right?

I told you about the stay

thing back here.

We

had a little powwow right here in this really dark room right here

praying about this building

and

and um

and and

and I'm going back here thinking, no way.

I'm by myself and I'm pacing back and forth

Back and forth.

I'm just pacing back and forth.

I think

there ain't no way.

This building is too big, right?

And

um

and

it's dark.

And I don't want to.

But all the ones that we just prayed with said, we think this is it.

And I'm going, no.

And so I'm pacing back and forth right back here in this hallway.

And I

have my hands on my head and I'm talking to the Lord and I'm going.

I says, we can't.

And right there in big cursive letters, it says, stay.

Stay.

I said, You're kidding.

So anyway, as the story goes, and there was a couple times I was in this building all by myself, and folks, I'm telling you, every hair on my body stood on end.

And I know what that is.

I know darkness, I know a demonic presence when I, and

right, this was this was Death Alley here

in

the old planet Doom.

So the next Monday when we get back, and we're still there there is no fix for what's going on here.

I think we're out months before we can get this thing fixed.

So I take my drill gun, I go take those doors off

As my dad would say, they were heavier than a dead priest.

Now, I don't know how heavy that is, but they were heavy.

And so I picked these doors up, you know, got under them and picked them up and took them across the parking lot, faced them away from the building.

And before I got the hole uh boarded up, I walked through here

and

the fire alarm guy was here

And he said, hey, I just rewired all these

duct

uh detectors.

He says, we're calling for an inspection.

And I'm like, what?

He said there

were

I

you're gonna call for an inspection this week?

Yeah, we're ready for an inspection.

And that wasn't even

on our radar.

I mean, because we

knew we were gonna have to fix this problem.

And I'm just thinking, Lord, could it have been that simple?

I believe it could have.

But Jesus has the authority over the darkness that took place in this building.

Right?

Greater is He that is in us than He that is in the world.

Amen.

And that's so true.

Because there is no authority except the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is nothing that can come

can rival

him.

Nothing.

Just like.

We

get to be the king's kids.

And he transfers this authority to us.

He gives us help.

He gives us strength to

resist the evil one and to

overcome

and to

To be healed.

He gives us all these things.

I'm going to close with a passage out of 2

Timothy this morning, and then

we're going to do communion.

And it's found in 2

2 Timothy 4:1–5

Timothy

4, verses 1 through 5.

And it says, I charge you therefore

before God

and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead.

At his

appearing and his kingdom.

Preach the word.

Be ready in

season and out of season.

Convince, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering

and teaching

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heal

heap up them for themselves

teachers

and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.

But you

be watchful in all things, endure affliction, do the work of an evangelist, and fulfill your ministry.

Folks, that's to all of us.

And so as we go forward, and like

now we have a home here

and

other ministries are going to start up.

Time is short.

Let's go share the gospel.

Do the work of an evangelist.

People need to get saved.

Yes, we're going to have to put more chairs in.

That's okay.

Right?

We may have to go to multiple services.

I don't know.

I don't really like that, but whatever the Lord has for us, we need to be willing to do.

Why?

Because he has the authority to do it.

We just have to come under his

authority and say, yes, Lord, here

am I, send me.

Stand with me, would you, and let's pray.

Take out your elements.

Lord, thank you.

Thank you for this

life you've given us.

Lord, these opportunities you tell us that the fields are widened to

harvest.

Pray that the Lord of the harvests

and labors

Lord, that would be us.

Would you equip us?

Would you help us to be

your people in these days

Lord, that we would realize that you have come

to give us life and that more abundantly, Lord, and and that is the authority that you

you have within yourself

to give this life that we

we can't have it without you

And so, Lord, help us to never forget that.

Would you be with your people, Lord?

Go before us, direct our steps

in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let's hold the bread before the Lord as we remember the body that was broken for us.

Father, thank you so much

for your

your

body

that you gave it up.

Lord, you laid it down.

You were that

drink offering, Lord

you were poured out, Lord, as you were uh

brutalized and beaten, Lord.

And uh

we see even in this passage today the hatred that humanity and and the world and the devil have for you

And so, Lord, thank you that you've changed our lives.

You've

made yourself real to us, Lord.

And so we want to honor you today as we remember the body that was broken for us, Lord, that was uh

that was pierced and shredded.

and uh received a crown of thorns, Lord.

None of it did you deserve.

And all of us deserved exactly what you received, Lord.

So

we

we worship you, we thank you, we pray that you would bless this bread as we remember your body.

In Jesus' name, let's

partake.

And likewise

He

took the fruit of the vine and said,

this is my blood.

This is

the blood of the new covenant.

Lord, that you signed that covenant in blood.

And uh

your lifeblood, that you would give us life

as we would come to you and receive your sacrifice.

Lord, that uh if we confess with our mouth

the Lord Jesus

and believe in our heart that you were raised from the dead

the dead, Lord, we're saved.

And so Lord, we thank you for that promise, that hope,

that

that power, Lord, the power to

cleanse us from our sin

and to remove the fear of death, Lord, because of all that you did.

there at Calvary

as you allowed your

lifeblood

to be poured out.

And Lord, we just

we remember it with thanksgiving as we remember you.

And we pray that you

Bless the cup now as we partake.

In Jesus' name, let's partake.

Okay, we're gonna

We're going to close with a with a little ditty

and uh

might be a knee slapper, but if you need

if you need prayer over at the cross, uh

please, as we're singing, go ahead and go over and get prayed for